Double life of policeman who became a terrorist

Ali Jaara, the suicide bomber on Jerusalem's Number 19 bus, was a Palestinian policeman charged with enforcing law and order one day and a terrorist the next.

While members of the Palestinian security forces have rarely, if ever, blown themselves up as a means of killing the maximum number of Jews there have been many instances of them taking up arms against the Israeli armed forces and attacking Jewish settlers. Jaara, 24, left a note saying the suicide bomb attack was in response to the killing of eight Palestinians, most of them armed, in Gaza City on Wednesday.

At the scene of that clash, one young man told The Telegraph how he led a double life.

Ahmed abu Hamda, 23, a soldier with a Palestinian Authority military intelligence unit, said he had not opened fire during the clash because it was against regulations.

He added: "There are orders. None of the security forces can shoot at the Israelis."

He had never fired the gun that had been issued to him, he added, but he had fired other guns.

Pointing to his military uniform, he said: "If I get the chance, I take this off and use another weapon. Then I fight as a Palestinian."